Evaluation Question 7 - Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task. What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Your Final Product?

The preliminary task was set up for us to get a feel of filming different types of shots and then using these shots to practise using Final Cut with a continuity exercise. I have uploaded my preliminary outcome on a past blog.

Final Cut Editing Software.

From this i have a learnt a large variety of skills and techniques which have been with me through the whole process of filming and editing of our production "Red Run".  Since this task at the very start of the term we have learnt a great deal to get us to where we are now. The final cut.
In our first rough cut, the main criticism we received was that we lacked shot diversity and continuity, this was because we used a small number of long takes on each scene. This is bad because long takes make the scene or shots less believable, especially on a film where the doll is a serial killer. These longer shots were also not advised because it was a bore to the audience, and most modern horror films consist of a large number and variety of shots on each scene to keep the audience hooked on the screen. Another piece of criticism we gained from this was the shaky camera work and un-wanted background digetic sound, by this we worked out that this had to be changed as it has a very negative effect on the final outcome of the film as it influences the overall quality, the film could also be represented as social realist.
By doing all these things I feel i have a lot better knowledge of media and how it's done and run, as every shot can tell something about the film or character using semiotics, for example, if you say there was a low angle shot of a doll with a knife inside a messy males teenage room you will think to yourself that, this doll is more powerful and in control than everything else because of the low angle, the knife suggests it's a possible slasher as that is usual weapon of choice for a killer in a slasher and that is known throughout the slasher audience. The teenage room may suggest that, well, the scene is in a teenage boys room. But there ways you can emphasise this and make this clear, such as adding posters of models or sport icons to the mise-en-scene. This can also tell the characters personality as well, models could be sign that hes straight and possibly sexually active & the sport posters can conote that he's active/sporty and could be a possible "jock" character referring to the slasher genre.

We have tried to take all these into consider when planning and filming and have always re-filmed shots that we weren't happy about. As you can see what we are accomplishing now is a much higher standard than of what I did for the preliminary course, editing, filming and knowledge wise. To ensure the highest of quality also, we took on all feedback from the rough cuts and changed and improved things to get it right for the next rough cut and finally the final finished product.

Also, Since my Preliminary task, i feel as though i am a lot more organised and definitely more efficient with work and deadlines, at the start of the year we didn't take the blogging as serious as i should which got us behind, since catching up again however i have had a dramatical change in my organisation and time keeping and me and Dillon more or less stuck to every rough cut deadline.